Pinhole photography diy

After seeing several pinhole photo's and searching some diy guides we've made ourselves the cheapest lens out there: ... a hole in the body cap of our DSLR.

In Wiki's words:

A pinhole camera is a very simple camera with no lens and a single very small aperture. Simply explained, it is a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. Light from a scene passes through this single point and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box. Cameras using small apertures and the human eye in bright light both act like a pinhole camera.

Here are some of the results of our own pinhole diy:

And here's how we did it:

The basic idea is to create a tiny hole in the middle of the body cap that is perfectly round. The material you pierce through has to be as thin as possible.

Get ready to mutilate your body cap.

Finding the middle:

Make a bigger hole first, we used a small nail. The hole is big enough not to interfere with the actual foil which we'll pierce. But small enough to easily stay in the middle.

Sand off (to clean the edges of the hole). Paper used was 100p, the brand came of pretty easy as well.

After your done sanding the cap clean it with water, you don't want all that dust in your camera. Remember to sand in and outside.

Get some tea lights, the aluminum has a good thickness; easy to pierce with a needle - and strong enough to sand the burr (edge) of the pierced hole.

Pierce some holes with a needle. The smaller the better. Use a soft underground (e.g. some paper). Put the needle in, only push the point through, twist it. Sand the burrs, the thinner you sand the aluminum, the better. Use a looking glass or your camera to inspect the roundness and size of the holes.

Use some tape, stick it on. Use some back light to easily see the hole.

Finish it as you please.